Horse shoe



Aug- 14, 1956 E. G. cRUMP 2,758,655

HORSE SHOE Filed June 17, 1954 INVEN TOR. d66/Vf' 6I GRZ/MP United States Patent O HORSE SHOE Eugene G. Crump, Cleveland, Ohio, assignor of one-half to Joseph Livignano, Cleveland, Ohio Application June 17, E1954, Serial No. 437,449

2 Claims. (Cl. 168-13) This invention is concerned with horseshoes and more particularly to racing plates for running hor-ses. The general object thereof is the incorporation in a racing plate structure of a discovery that a cleated racing plate can be made which will avoid the yburden placed upon the tendons of the front legs of yearlings and two year olds by present shoeing practices or using plates having only a toe cleat. v

A more specific object of the present invention is the provision of a cleated shoe plate structure which -will cushion the force of the hoof of a racing horse upon relatively hard tracks and whereby the blow ofthe hoof beat will be distributed uniformly over the toe, side walls and buttresses of the hoof structure while the reactive forces of the beat tend to be in a forward direction.

A further object of the present invention is the provision of a racing plate for running horses which will have the characteristics of light weight, durability and ruggedness to withstand the hoof beat.

A still further object is the provision of a composite plate structure wherein the cleats are distributed over the entire surface of the plate with structures of uniform height whereby the running step of the horse is provided wit-h an instantaneous distribution of the beat on the turf uniformly from the heel to toe of the plate thereby lessening tendon and bulb strains on the horses legs and hoofs.

Another object is the provision of a horseshoe structure which will fulll the foregoing stated objects and which will have a metal body which can be altered in contour by the horseshoe to t the hoofs of individual horses.

Other objects will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the horseshoe structure shown in the accompanying drawings illustrating -a preferred embodiment thereof. The essential characteristics are summarized in the claims.

Fig. 1 of the drawings is a plan view showing the tread or underside of the shoe;

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 2 2 of Fig. l and showing the bonded relation of the cushion material and the metal plate of the horseshoe structure and height of cleats;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken at line 3 3 in Fig. 1.

My invention contemplates the provision composite of a shoe or plate structure wherein the body of lthe plate is formed of a light metal alloy such as aluminum or magnesium alloy of relatively high tensile strength and the metal body is channel or hollow formed for the reception and retention of a rubber compound which when cured out will be tough and durable. The rubber may be placed upon the hollow body and the composite assembly is cured in a mold thereby to bond the cured rubber ,to the metal and to form cleats of uniform height protruding from the tread surface of the plate from toe to heel of the plate. The metallic body may be pressed lformed from sheet stock or cast to provide the ice desired hollow or channel structure contemplated with marginal walls or channel flanges overh-anging the hollow thereby more firmly to anchor the body of rubber to the metal body.

It is the present practice to shoe yearlings or two year old horses with light metal shoes or plates having only a toe lug protruding from the beat surface of .the plate. A horse with a flat hoof beat thus shoed rapidly develops strained tendons due to the fact that the reactive forces are concentrated at 4the toe of the plate and undue llexing of the ankle occurs before the heel of the shoe comes in contact with the turf. This results in a disabling or laming of more than ninety per cent of the yearlings lbeing trialed. I accordingly provide a cleat arrangement which meets or overcomes the tendon straining; and, while being self-cleansing, tends to add a forward spring to the animals stride. This is effected by the particular cross sectional shape and location of the rubber cleats which are hereinafter disclosed.

The useful life of a set of plates or shoes of a horse which is running does not exceed three weeks particularly on sand tracks. Now I have found that by distributing the blow of the beat over the entire surface of the shoe, rubber cleats molded of tough rubber oompound will meet the requirements without splitting or fraying, where the rubber is molded to a metallic plate of light metal such as aluminum or magnesium alloy, which can be shaped and lit-ted to the hoof and which will remain bonded to the rubber regardless of the required itting.

Referring to the drawings, I show a metallic plate 5 which is of a channel construction to receive the rubber compound. The contour is of the usual horseshoe shape bordered with flanges 6 undercut as at 7 to form a dovetailed lock between the rubber and the metal. The metal plate may be cast or it may be formed by a blanking Iand forming operation in a press. If processed by the later method the anges 6 will be bent inwardly to form the overhanging lock 7. Lf cast the channel may be milled out by the use of a suitably shaped milling tool.

However produced the metal plate is placed in a mold with the proper volume of rubber compound, the plate having been first coated with a curable bonding cement. The mold has cavities formed therein to mold the cleats, which are shown in Fig. l as outer and inner arcuate toe cleats 8 and 9 respectively and buttress cleats 10, there being six of the latter spaced along the shoe leg at each side and arranged 'from the forward end to the heel end of the shoe. All of the cleats are shaped to have vertical faces 11 at the rear side, a top land 12 and a sloping front face 13.

The shape of the cleats as just described has been determined to produce a springy cushion, in that the cleats are 'distorted or deflected backwardly and upon recoil have a tendency to kick the horses hooi:` forwardly when the running is taking place on a hard turf. When running on a soft turf such as a grass turf or mud track the shape of the cleats is such as to be self cleaning.

I find that the shoes hereinabove disclosed can be made with a high tensile aluminum alloy and with well known tou-gh rubber compounds not to exceed approximately two ounces in weight, and that the at structure will not be lost during fitting. This litting accomplished in the usual way by Ibending to a final shape corresponding to the toe buttress and heel shape of the hoof whereupon hoof nails may be passed through openings 14 located in the channel slot immediately adjacent the outer flange 6 and continued through the rubber, whereby the heads of the nails will be submerged in the rubber in metal to metal contact with the metallic plate.

Since lands of all of the cleats are in a common plane parallel to the hoof surface, the ankle and foreleg tendons of the horse are not subjected to undue strain, as the afforded tread is flat and parallel to the sole surface of the horses hoof.

I claim:

l. A shoe for racing horses consisting of a white metal continuously channeled base structure in the shape of a conventional horseshoe with channel flanges of uniform height extending continuously about the shoe perimeters including the heel portions of the channel structure, a molded composition of resilient material filling the channel structure to the height of the channel flanges to form a primary tread surface with the flange tops and permanently secured in the channel, an inner and an outer arcuate toe cleat formed integral with the composition in the channel and extending outwardly from the tread face of the body of composition in the channel and above the channel flanges and terminating in flat lands in a common plane and similar cleats formed of the composition to extend transversely of the legs of the shoe structure and terminating in a plane common to the lands of the arcuate toe cleats, all of said cleats being adapted to be deflected backwardly relative to the stride of a racing horse when wearing the shoe.

2. A shoe for racing horses consisting of a continuously channeled metallic base structure in the shape of a conventional horseshoe with channel anges of uniform height extending continuously about the shoe perirneters including the heel portions of the channel structure with the flanges overhanging the channel way of the shoe structure, a molded composition of resilient material lilling the channel structure to the height of the channel Cil anges thereby forming with the top of the flanges a primary tread surface, said composition being permanently secured in the channel, an inner and an outer arcuate toe cleat formed integral with the composition having outer flat lands and forwardly sloping faces and extending outwardly from the body of composition in the channel and above the channel flanges and similarly formed cleats formed of the composition to extend transversely of the legs of the shoe structure with the outer flat lands thereof disposed in a plane common to the height of the arcuate toe cleats, said plane being parallel to the primary tread surface and all of said cleats being adapted to be deflected backwardly relative to the stride of a racing horse when Wearing the shoe whereby the reactions of the deflected cleats assist in the forward stride of the horse.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 811,619 Cline Feb. 6, 1906 943,146 Filliez Dec. 14, 1909 1,130,834 Nolan Mar. 9, 1915 1,357,909 Sherwood Nov. 2, 1920 1,476,867 Wunderlich Dec. 11, 1923 1,710,909 Watson Apr. 30, 1929 2,157,826 Kearney May 9, 1939 2,466,074 Bell Apr. 5, 1949 2,622,685 Dixon Dec. 23, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 235,112 Great Britain June 11, 1925 736,936 France Sept. 26, 1932 

